Young Leaders Seminar "DevelOp! - Developing Oportunities to Fight Extreme Poverty"

Objective

During a two-day workshop, 18 students and young professionals discussed the potential of business models for poverty alleviation.

Programme

On the first day, participants received practical and theoretical input on the topic:

Jakob Schmidt-Reindahl, co-founder of INENSUS, presented the companies approach of providing energy off the grid to coastal villages in Senegal. The wind energy start-up is building a holistic business model that will not only provide electricity to villagers, but also help them use its productive potential effectively.

Diana Kraft presented one of the public private partnerships she manages at the German development agency GTZ (Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit). In India, GTZ and Envitec Biogas are building medium scale biogas power plans that provide energy to a number of villages and small towns.

Finally, Prof. Dr. Ingo Pies explained how innovative business models can overcome the constraints entrepreneurs face in the context of poverty by addressing the underlying coordination problems.

Having received this practical and theoretical input, students spent the following day working in groups presenting and discussing their own ideas on the topic. They were asked to develop their own business model with the objective to profitably provide energy services to the poor. Based on this, the group discussed what role developing agencies and donors should take in his emerging field of business-led poverty alleviation. The innovative ideas and intense debate gave prove of the entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm of the young leaders!